Monday's Illustrated Word: "Winged Death On Venus" by Unknown Writer (in English)

 art Wally Wood - Amazing Adventures #1 - Ziff-Davis, 1950.

Good Readings: "The Camel and the Arab" by Aesop (translated into English)

          An Arab camel-driver, after completing the loading of his Camel, asked him which he would like best, to go up hill or down. The poor beast replied, not without a touch of reason:  "Why do you ask me? Is it that the level way through the desert is closed?"

Friday's Sung Word: "Lola" by Lamartine Babo (in Portuguese)

Hoje eu li um anúncio no jornal
Anúncio muito interessante
Um rapaz alegre, jovial
Procura uma mulher constante

Para evitar qualquer engano
Diz o moço que tem
Tem bangalô e um bom piano
Automóvel também
Hoje em dia provar ninguém tem

Lola, Lola
Hás de ser a minha namorada
Na próxima noite enluarada
Tenho muitos beijos pra nós dois
E depois...e depois...e depois...

Lola, Lola
Nosso casamento vai ter graça
Vamos cometer essa desgraça
Vem morrer de fome
Mal não faz imitar nossos pais

Teremos um, teremos dois
Teremos um batalhão
Teremos muitos filhos - haja feijão
E se o primeiro for mulher
Chamar-se-á Conceição
Se for guri será o nosso "Jolie"

Querida Lola, Lola
O Brasil é grande é um colosso
Vamos à Goiás e a Mato Grosso
E seremos lá no Paraguai
Tu mamãe e eu papai

You can hear "Lola" sung by Lamartine Babo here.

Thursday's Serial: "The Moon Pool" by A. Merritt (in English) XII

CHAPTER XXX - The Building of the Moon Pool

                She paused, running her long fingers through her own bronze-flecked ringlets. Selective breeding this, with a vengeance, I thought; an ancient experiment in heredity which of course would in time result in the stamping out of the tendency to depart from type that lies in all organisms; resulting, obviously, at last, in three fixed forms of black-haired, ruddy-haired, and silver-haired - but this, with a shock of realization it came to me, was also an accurate description of the dark-polled ladala, their fair-haired rulers and of the golden-brown tressed Lakla!

                How - questions began to stream through my mind; silenced by the handmaiden's voice.

                "Above, far, far above the abode of the Shining One," she said, ”was their greatest temple, holding the shrines both of sun and moon. All about it were other temples hidden behind mighty walls, each enclosing its own space and squared and ruled and standing within a shallow lake; the sacred city, the city of the gods of this land -”

                "It is the Nan-Matal that she is describing," I thought.

                "Out upon all this looked the Taithu who were now but the servants of the Shining One as it had been the messenger of the Three," she went on. ”When they returned the Shining One spoke to them, promising them dominion over all that they had seen, yea, under it dominion of all earth itself and later perhaps of other earths!

                "In the Shining One had grown craft, cunning; knowledge to gain that which it desired. Therefore it told its Taithu - and mayhap told them truth - that not yet was it time for them to go forth; that slowly must they pass into that outer world, for they had sprung from heart of earth and even it lacked power to swirl unaided into and through the above. Then it counselled them, instructing them what to do. They hollowed the chamber wherein first I saw you, cutting their way to it that path down which from it you sped.

                "It revealed to them that the force that is within moon flame is kin to the force that is within it, for the chamber of its birth was the chamber too of moon birth and into it went the subtle essence and powers that flow in that earth child: and it taught them how to make that which fills what you call the Moon Pool whose opening is close behind its Veil hanging upon the gleaming cliffs.

                "When this was done it taught them how to make and how to place the seven lights through which moon flame streams into Moon Pool - the seven lights that are kin to its own seven orbs even as its fires are kin to moon fires - and which would open for it a path that it could tread. And all this the Taithu did, working so secretly that neither those of their race whose faces were set against the Shining One nor the busy men above know aught of it.

                "When it was done they moved up the path, clustering within the Moon Pool Chamber. Moon flame streamed through the seven globes, poured down upon the pool; they saw mists arise, embrace, and become one with the moon flame - and then up through Moon Pool, shaping itself within the mists of light, whirling, radiant - the Shining One!

                "Almost free, almost loosed upon the world it coveted!

                "Again it counselled them, and they pierced the passage whose portal you found first; set the fires within its stones, and revealing themselves to the moon king and his priests spake to them even as the Shining One had instructed.

                "Now was the moon king filled with fear when he looked upon the Taithu, shrouded with protecting mists of light in Moon Pool Chamber, and heard their words. Yet, being crafty, he thought of the power that would be his if he heeded and how quickly the strength of the sun king would dwindle. So he and his made a pact with the Shining One's messengers.

                "When next the moon was round and poured its flames down upon Moon Pool, the Taithu gathered there again, watched the child of the Three take shape within the pillars, speed away - and out! They heard a mighty shouting, a tumult of terror, of awe and of worship; a silence; a vast sighing - and they waited, wrapped in their mists of light, for they feared to follow nor were they near the paths that would have enabled them to look without.

                "Another tumult - and back came the Shining One, murmuring with joy, pulsing, triumphant, and clasped within its vapours a man and woman, ruddy-haired, golden-eyed, in whose faces rapture and horror lay side by side - gloriously, hideously. And still holding them it danced above the Moon Pool and - sank!

                "Now must I be brief. Lat after lat the Shining One went forth, returning with its sacrifices. And stronger after each it grew - and gayer and more cruel. Ever when it passed with its prey toward the pool, the Taithu who watched felt a swift, strong intoxication, a drunkenness of spirit, streaming from it to them. And the Shining One forgot what it had promised them of dominion - and in this new evil delight they too forgot.

                "The outer land was torn with hatred and open strife. The moon king and his kind, through the guidance of the evil Taithu and the favour of the Shining One, had become powerful and the sun king and his were darkened. And the moon priests preached that the child of the Three was the moon god itself come to dwell with them.

                "Now vast tides arose and when they withdrew they took with them great portions of this country. And the land itself began to sink. Then said the moon king that the moon had called to ocean to destroy because wroth that another than he was worshipped. The people believed and there was slaughter. When it was over there was no more a sun king nor any of the ruddy-haired folk; slain were they, slain down to the babe at breast.

                "But still the tides swept higher; still dwindled the land!

                "As it shrank multitudes of the fleeing people were led through Moon Pool Chamber and carried here. They were what now are called the ladala, and they were given place and set to work; and they thrived. Came many of the fair-haired; and they were given dwellings. They sat beside the evil Taithu; they became drunk even as they with the dancing of the Shining One; they learned - not all; only a little part but little enough - of their arts. And ever the Shining One danced more gaily out there within the black amphitheatre; grew ever stronger - and ever the hordes of its slaves behind the Veil increased.

                "Nor did the Taithu who clung to the old ways check this - they could not. By the sinking of the land above, their own spaces were imperilled. All of their strength and all of their wisdom it took to keep this land from perishing; nor had they help from those others mad for the poison of the Shining One; and they had no time to deal with them nor the earth race with whom they had foregathered.

                "At last came a slow, vast flood. It rolled even to the bases of the walled islets of the city of the gods - and within these now were all that were left of my people on earth face.

                "I am of those people," she paused, looking at me proudly, ”one of the daughters of the sun king whose seed is still alive in the ladala!"

                As Larry opened his mouth to speak she waved a silencing hand.

                "This tide did not recede," she went on. ”And after a time the remnant, the moon king leading them, joined those who had already fled below. The rocks became still, the quakings ceased, and now those Ancient Ones who had been labouring could take breath. And anger grew within them as they looked upon the work of their evil kin. Again they sought the Three - and the Three now knew what they had done and their pride was humbled. They would not slay the Shining One themselves, for still they loved it; but they instructed these others how to undo their work; how also they might destroy the evil Taithu were it necessary.

                "Armed with the wisdom of the Three they went forth - but now the Shining One was strong indeed. They could not slay it!

                "Nay, it knew and was prepared; they could not even pass beyond its Veil nor seal its abode. Ah, strong, strong, mighty of will, full of craft and cunning had the Shining One become. So they turned upon their kind who had gone astray and made them perish, to the last. The Shining One came not to the aid of its servants - though they called; for within its will was the thought that they were of no further use to it; that it would rest awhile and dance with them - who had so little of the power and wisdom of its Taithu and therefore no reins upon it. And while this was happening black-haired and fair-haired ran and hid and were but shaking vessels of terror.

                "The Ancient Ones took counsel. This was their decision; that they would go from the gardens before the Silver Waters - leaving, since they could not kill it, the Shining One with its worshippers. They sealed the mouth of the passage that leads to the Moon Pool Chamber and they changed the face of the cliff so that none might tell where it had been. But the passage itself they left open - having foreknowledge I think, of a thing that was to come to pass in the far future - perhaps it was your journey here, my Larry and Goodwin - verily I think so. And they destroyed all the ways save that which we three trod to the Dweller's abode.

                "For the last time they went to the Three - to pass sentence upon them. This was the doom - that here they should remain, alone, among the Akka, served by them, until that time dawned when they would have will to destroy the evil they had created - and even now - loved; nor might they seek death, nor follow their judges until this had come to pass. This was the doom they put upon the Three for the wickedness that had sprung from their pride, and they strengthened it with their arts that it might not be broken.

                "Then they passed - to a far land they had chosen where the Shining One could not go, beyond the Black Precipices of Doul, a green land -”

                "Ireland!" interrupted Larry, with conviction, ”I knew it."

                "Since then time upon time had passed," she went on, unheeding. ”The people called this place Muria after their sunken land and soon they forgot where had been the passage the Taithu had sealed. The moon king became the Voice of the Dweller and always with the Voice is a woman of the moon king's kin who is its priestess.

                "And many have been the journeys upward of the Shining One, through the Moon Pool - returning with still others in its coils.

                "And now again has it grown restless, longing for the wider spaces. It has spoken to Yolara and to Lugur even as it did to the dead Taithu, promising them dominion. And it has grown stronger, drawing to itself power to go far on the moon stream where it will. Thus was it able to seize your friend, Goodwin, and Olaf's wife and babe - and many more. Yolara and Lugur plan to open way to earth face; to depart with their court and under the Shining One grasp the world!

                "And this is the tale the Silent Ones bade me tell you - and it is done."

                Breathlessly I had listened to the stupendous epic of a long-lost world. Now I found speech to voice the question ever with me, the thing that lay as close to my heart as did the welfare of Larry, indeed the whole object of my quest - the fate of Throckmartin and those who had passed with him into the Dweller's lair; yes, and of Olaf's wife, too.

                "Lakla," I said, ”the friend who drew me here and those he loved who went before him - can we not save them?"

                "The Three say no, Goodwin." There was again in her eyes the pity with which she had looked upon Olaf. ”The Shining One - feeds - upon the flame of life itself, setting in its place its own fires and its own will. Its slaves are only shells through which it gleams. Death, say the Three, is the best that can come to them; yet will that be a boon great indeed."

                "But they have souls, mavourneen," Larry said to her. ”And they're alive still - in a way. Anyhow, their souls have not gone from them."

                I caught a hope from his words - sceptic though I am - holding that the existence of soul has never been proved by dependable laboratory methods - for they recalled to me that when I had seen Throckmartin, Edith had been close beside him.

                "It was days after his wife was taken, that the Dweller seized Throckmartin," I cried. ”How, if their wills, their life, were indeed gone, how did they find each other mid all that horde? How did they come together in the Dweller's lair?"

                "I do not know," she answered, slowly. ”You say they loved - and it is true that love is stronger even than death!"

                "One thing I don't understand" - this was Larry again -”is why a girl like you keeps coming out of the black-haired crowd; so frequently and one might say, so regularly, Lakla. Aren't there ever any red-headed boys - and if they are what becomes of them?"

                "That, Larry, I cannot answer," she said, very frankly. ”There was a pact of some kind; how made or by whom I know not. But for long the Murians feared the return of the Taithu and greatly they feared the Three. Even the Shining One feared those who had created it - for a time; and not even now is it eager to face them - that I know. Nor are Yolara and Lugur so sure. It may be that the Three commanded it: but how or why I know not. I only know that it is true - for here am I and from where else would I have come?"

                "From Ireland," said Larry O'Keefe, promptly. ”And that's where you're going. For 'tis no place for a girl like you to have been brought up - Lakla; what with people like frogs, and a half-god three quarters devil, and red oceans, an' the only Irish things yourself and the Silent Ones up there, bless their hearts. It's no place for ye, and by the soul of St. Patrick, it's out of it soon ye'll be gettin'!"

                Larry! Larry! If it had but been true - and I could see Lakla and you beside me now!

               

CHAPTER XXXI - Larry and the Frog-Men

                Long had been her tale in the telling, and too long, perhaps, have I been in the repeating - but not every day are the mists rolled away to reveal undreamed secrets of earth-youth. And I have set it down here, adding nothing, taking nothing from it; translating liberally, it is true, but constantly striving, while putting it into idea-forms and phraseology to be readily understood by my readers, to keep accurately to the spirit. And this, I must repeat, I have done throughout my narrative, wherever it has been necessary to record conversation with the Murians.

                Rising, I found I was painfully stiff - as muscle-bound as though I had actually trudged many miles. Larry, imitating me, gave an involuntary groan.

                "Faith, mavourneen," he said to Lakla, relapsing unconsciously into English, ”your roads would never wear out shoe-leather, but they've got their kick, just the same!"

                She understood our plight, if not his words; gave a soft little cry of mingled pity and self-reproach; forced us back upon the cushions.

                "Oh, but I'm sorry!" mourned Lakla, leaning over us. ”I had forgotten - for those new to it the way is a weary one, indeed -”

                She ran to the doorway, whistled a clear high note down the passage. Through the hangings came two of the frog-men. She spoke to them rapidly. They crouched toward us, what certainly was meant for an amiable grin wrinkling the grotesque muzzles, baring the glistening rows of needle-teeth. And while I watched them with the fascination that they never lost for me, the monsters calmly swung one arm around our knees, lifted us up like babies - and as calmly started to walk away with us!

                "Put me down! Put me down, I say!" The O'Keefe's voice was both outraged and angry; squinting around I saw him struggling violently to get to his feet. The Akka only held him tighter, booming comfortingly, peering down into his flushed face inquiringly.

                "But, Larry - darlin'!" - Lakla's tones were - well, maternally surprised -”you're stiff and sore, and Kra can carry you quite easily."

                "I won't be carried!" sputtered the O'Keefe. ”Damn it, Goodwin, there are such things as the unities even here, an' for a lieutenant of the Royal Air Force to be picked up an' carted around like a - like a bundle of rags - it's not discipline! Put me down, ye omadhaun, or I'll poke ye in the snout!" he shouted to his bearer - who only boomed gently, and stared at the handmaiden, plainly for further instructions.

                "But, Larry - dear!" - Lakla was plainly distressed -”it will hurt you to walk; and I don't want you to hurt, Larry - darlin'!"

                "Holy shade of St. Patrick!" moaned Larry; again he made a mighty effort to tear himself from the frog-man's grip; gave up with a groan. ”Listen, alanna!" he said plaintively. ”When we get to Ireland, you and I, we won't have anybody to pick us up and carry us about every time we get a bit tired. And it's getting me in bad habits you are!"

                "Oh, yes, we will, Larry!" cried the handmaiden, ”because many, oh, many, of my Akka will go with us!"

                "Will you tell this - BOOB! - to put me down!" gritted the now thoroughly aroused O'Keefe. I couldn't help laughing; he glared at me.

                "Bo-oo-ob?" exclaimed Lakla.

                "Yes, boo-oo-ob!" said O'Keefe, ”an' I have no desire to explain the word in my present position, light of my soul!"

                The handmaiden sighed, plainly dejected. But she spoke again to the Akka, who gently lowered the O'Keefe to the floor.

                "I don't understand," she said hopelessly, ”if you want to walk, why, of course, you shall, Larry." She turned to me.

                "Do you?" she asked.

                "I do not," I said firmly.

                "Well, then," murmured Lakla, ”go you, Larry and Goodwin, with Kra and Gulk, and let them minister to you. After, sleep a little - for not soon will Rador and Olaf return. And let me feel your lips before you go, Larry - darlin'!" She covered his eyes caressingly with her soft little palms; pushed him away.

                "Now go," said Lakla, ”and rest!"

                Unashamed I lay back against the horny chest of Gulk; and with a smile noticed that Larry, even if he had rebelled at being carried, did not disdain the support of Kra's shining, black-scaled arm which, slipping around his waist, half-lifted him along.

                They parted a hanging and dropped us softly down beside a little pool, sparkling with the clear water that had heretofore been brought us in the wide basins. Then they began to undress us. And at this point the O'Keefe gave up.

                "Whatever they're going to do we can't stop 'em, Doc!" he moaned. ”Anyway, I feel as though I've been pulled through a knot-hole, and I don't care - I don't care - as the song says."

                When we were stripped we were lowered gently into the water. But not long did the Akka let us splash about the shallow basin. They lifted us out, and from jars began deftly to anoint and rub us with aromatic unguents.

                I think that in all the medley of grotesque, of tragic, of baffling, strange and perilous experiences in that underground world none was more bizarre than this - valeting. I began to laugh, Larry joined me, and then Kra and Gulk joined in our merriment with deep batrachian cachinnations and gruntings. Then, having finished apparelling us and still chuckling, the two touched our arms and led us out, into a room whose circular sides were ringed with soft divans. Still smiling, I sank at once into sleep.

                How long I slumbered I do not know. A low and thunderous booming coming through the deep window slit, reverberated through the room and awakened me. Larry yawned; arose briskly.

                "Sounds as though the bass drums of every jazz band in New York were serenading us!" he observed. Simultaneously we sprang to the window; peered through.

                We were a little above the level of the bridge, and its full length was plain before us. Thousands upon thousands of the Akka were crowding upon it, and far away other hordes filled like a glittering thicket both sides of the cavern ledge's crescent strand. On black scale and orange scale the crimson light fell, picking them off in little flickering points.

                Upon the platform from which sprang the smaller span over the abyss were Lakla, Olaf, and Rador; the handmaiden clearly acting as interpreter between them and the giant she had called Nak, the Frog King.

                "Come on!" shouted Larry.

                Out of the open portal we ran; over the World Heart Bridge - and straight into the group.

                "Oh!" cried Lakla, ”I didn't want you to wake up so soon, Larry - darlin'!"

                "See here, mavourneen!" Indignation thrilled in the Irishman's voice. ”I'm not going to be done up with baby-ribbons and laid away in a cradle for safe-keeping while a fight is on; don't think it. Why didn't you call me?"

                "You needed rest!" There was indomitable determination in the handmaiden's tones, the eternal maternal shining defiant from her eyes. ”You were tired and you hurt! You shouldn't have got up!"

                "Needed the rest!" groaned Larry. ”Look here, Lakla, what do you think I am?"

                "You're all I have," said that maiden firmly, ”and I'm going to take care of you, Larry - darlin'! Don't you ever think anything else."

                "Well, pulse of my heart, considering my delicate health and general fragility, would it hurt me, do you think, to be told what's going on?" he asked.

                "Not at all, Larry!" answered the handmaiden serenely. ”Yolara went through the Portal. She was very, very angry -”

                "She was all the devil's woman that she is!" rumbled Olaf.

                "Rador met the messenger," went on the Golden Girl calmly. ”The ladala are ready to rise when Lugur and Yolara lead their hosts against us. They will strike at those left behind. And in the meantime we shall have disposed my Akka to meet Yolara's men. And on that disposal we must all take counsel, you, Larry, and Rador, Olaf and Goodwin and Nak, the ruler of the Akka."

                "Did the messenger give any idea when Yolara expects to make her little call?" asked Larry.

                "Yes," she answered. ”They prepare, and we may expect them in -” She gave the equivalent of about thirty-six hours of our time.

                "But, Lakla," I said, the doubt that I had long been holding finding voice, ”should the Shining One come - with its slaves - are the Three strong enough to cope with it?"

                There was troubled doubt in her own eyes.

                "I do not know," she said at last, frankly. ”You have heard their story. What they promise is that they will help. I do not know - any more than do you, Goodwin!"

                I looked up at the dome beneath which I knew the dread Trinity stared forth; even down upon us. And despite the awe, the assurance, I had felt when I stood before them I, too, doubted.

                "Well," said Larry, ”you and I, uncle," he turned to Rador, ”and Olaf here had better decide just what part of the battle we'll lead -”

                "Lead!" the handmaiden was appalled. ”You lead, Larry? Why you are to stay with Goodwin and with me - up there, there we can watch."

                "Heart's beloved," O'Keefe was stern indeed. ”A thousand times I've looked Death straight in the face, peered into his eyes. Yes, and with ten thousand feet of space under me an' bursting shells tickling the ribs of the boat I was in. An' d'ye think I'll sit now on the grandstand an' watch while a game like this is being pulled? Ye don't know your future husband, soul of my delight!"

                And so we started toward the golden opening, squads of the frog-men following us soldierly and disappearing about the huge structure. Nor did we stop until we came to the handmaiden's boudoir. There we seated ourselves.

                "Now," said Larry, ”two things I want to know. First - how many can Yolara muster against us; second, how many of these Akka have we to meet them?"

                Rador gave our equivalent for eighty thousand men as the force Yolara could muster without stripping her city. Against this force, it appeared, we could count, roughly, upon two hundred thousand of the Akka.

                "And they're some fighters!" exclaimed Larry. ”Hell, with odds like that what're you worrying about? It's over before it's begun."

                "But, Larree," objected Rador to this, ”you forget that the nobles will have the Keth - and other things; also that the soldiers have fought against the Akka before and will be shielded very well from their spears and clubs - and that their blades and javelins can bite through the scales of Nak's warriors. They have many things -”

                "Uncle," interjected O'Keefe, ”one thing they have is your nerve. Why, we're more than two to one. And take it from me -”

                Without warning dropped the tragedy!

               

CHAPTER XXXII - "Your Love; Your Lives; Your Souls!"

                Lakla had taken no part in the talk since we had reached her bower. She had seated herself close to the O'Keefe. Glancing at her I had seen steal over her face that brooding, listening look that was hers whenever in that mysterious communion with the Three. It vanished; swiftly she arose; interrupted the Irishman without ceremony.

                "Larry darlin'," said the handmaiden. ”The Silent Ones summon us!"

                "When do we go?" I asked; Larry's face grew bright with interest.

                "The time is now," she said - and hesitated. ”Larry dear, put your arms about me," she faltered, ”for there is something cold that catches at my heart - and I am afraid."

                At his exclamation she gathered herself together; gave a shaky little laugh.

                "It's because I love you so that fear has power to plague me," she told him.

                Without another word he bent and kissed her; in silence we passed on, his arm still about her girdled waist, golden head and black close together. Soon we stood before the crimson slab that was the door to the sanctuary of the Silent Ones. She poised uncertainly before it; then with a defiant arching of the proud little head that sent all the bronze-flecked curls flying, she pressed. It slipped aside and once more the opalescence gushed out, flooding all about us.

                Dazzled as before, I followed through the lambent cascades pouring from the high, carved walls; paused, and my eyes clearing, looked up - straight into the faces of the Three. The angled orbs centred upon the handmaiden; softened as I had seen them do when first we had faced them. She smiled up; seemed to listen.

                "Come closer," she commanded, ”close to the feet of the Silent Ones."

                We moved, pausing at the very base of the dais. The sparkling mists thinned; the great heads bent slightly over us; through the veils I caught a glimpse of huge columnar necks, enormous shoulders covered with draperies as of pale-blue fire.

                I came back to attention with a start, for Lakla was answering a question only heard by her, and, answering it aloud, I perceived for our benefit; for whatever was the mode of communication between those whose handmaiden she was, and her, it was clearly independent of speech.

                "He has been told," she said, ”even as you commanded."

                Did I see a shadow of pain flit across the flickering eyes? Wondering, I glanced at Lakla's face and there was a dawn of foreboding and bewilderment. For a little she held her listening attitude; then the gaze of the Three left her; focused upon the O'Keefe.

                "Thus speak the Silent Ones - through Lakla, their handmaiden," the golden voice was like low trumpet notes. ”At the threshold of doom is that world of yours above. Yea, even the doom, Goodwin, that ye dreamed and the shadow of which, looking into your mind they see, say the Three. For not upon earth and never upon earth can man find means to destroy the Shining One."

                She listened again - and the foreboding deepened to an amazed fear.

                "They say, the Silent Ones," she went on, ”that they know not whether even they have power to destroy. Energies we know nothing of entered into its shaping and are part of it; and still other energies it has gathered to itself" - she paused; a shadow of puzzlement crept into her voice”and other energies still, forces that ye do know and symbolize by certain names - hatred and pride and lust and many others which are forces real as that hidden in the Keth; and among them - fear, which weakens all those others -” Again she paused.

                "But within it is nothing of that greatest of all, that which can make powerless all the evil others, that which we call - love," she ended softly.

                "I'd like to be the one to put a little more fear in the beast," whispered Larry to me, grimly in our own English. The three weird heads bent, ever so slightly - and I gasped, and Larry grew a little white as Lakla nodded -

                "They say, Larry," she said, ”that there you touch one side of the heart of the matter - for it is through the way of fear the Silent Ones hope to strike at the very life of the Shining One!"

                The visage Larry turned to me was eloquent of wonder; and mine reflected it - for what really were this Three to whom our minds were but open pages, so easily read? Not long could we conjecture; Lakla broke the little silence.

                "This, they say, is what is to happen. First will come upon us Lugur and Yolara with all their host. Because of fear the Shining One will lurk behind within its lair; for despite all, the Dweller does dread the Three, and only them. With this host the Voice and the priestess will strive to conquer. And if they do, then will they be strong enough, too, to destroy us all. For if they take the abode they banish from the Dweller all fear and sound the end of the Three.

                "Then will the Shining One be all free indeed; free to go out into the world, free to do there as it wills!

                "But if they do not conquer - and the Shining One comes not to their aid, abandoning them even as it abandoned its own Taithu - then will the Three be loosed from a part of their doom, and they will go through the Portal, seek the Shining One beyond the Veil, and, piercing it through fear's opening, destroy it."

                "That's quite clear," murmured the O'Keefe in my ear. ”Weaken the morale - then smash. I've seen it happen a dozen times in Europe. While they've got their nerve there's not a thing you can do; get their nerve - and not a thing can they do. And yet in both cases they're the same men."

                Lakla had been listening again. She turned, thrust out hands to Larry, a wild hope in her eyes - and yet a hope half shamed.

                "They say," she cried, ”that they give us choice. Remembering that your world doom hangs in the balance, we have choice - choice to stay and help fight Yolara's armies - and they say they look not lightly on that help. Or choice to go - and if so be you choose the latter, then will they show another way that leads into your world!"

                A flush had crept over the O'Keefe's face as she was speaking. He took her hands and looked long into the golden eyes; glancing up I saw the Trinity were watching them intently - imperturbably.

                "What do you say, mavourneen?" asked Larry gently. The handmaiden hung her head; trembled.

                "Your words shall be mine, O one I love," she whispered. ”So going or staying, I am beside you."

                "And you, Goodwin?" he turned to me. I shrugged my shoulders - after all I had no one to care.

                "It's up to you, Larry," I remarked, deliberately choosing his own phraseology.

                The O'Keefe straightened, squared his shoulders, gazed straight into the flame-flickering eyes.

                "We stick!" he said briefly.

                Shamefacedly I recall now that at the time I thought this colloquialism not only irreverent, but in somewhat bad taste. I am glad to say I was alone in that bit of weakness. The face that Lakla turned to Larry was radiant with love, and although the shamed hope had vanished from the sweet eyes, they were shining with adoring pride. And the marble visages of the Three softened, and the little flames died down.

                "Wait," said Lakla, ”there is one other thing they say we must answer before they will hold us to that promise - wait -”

                She listened, and then her face grew white - white as those of the Three themselves; the glorious eyes widened, stark terror filling them; the whole lithe body of her shook like a reed in the wind.

                "Not that!" she cried out to the Three. ”Oh, not that! Not Larry - let me go even as you will - but not him!" She threw up frantic hands to the woman-being of the Trinity. ”Let me bear it alone," she wailed. ”Alone - mother! Mother!"

                The Three bent their heads toward her, their faces pitiful, and from the eyes of the woman One rolled - tears! Larry leaped to Lakla's side.

                "Mavourneen!" he cried. ”Sweetheart, what have they said to you?"

                He glared up at the Silent Ones, his hand twitching toward the high-hung pistol holster.

                The handmaiden swung to him; threw white arms around his neck; held her head upon his heart until her sobbing ceased.

                "This they - say - the Silent Ones," she gasped and then all the courage of her came back. ”O heart of mine!" she whispered to Larry, gazing deep into his eyes, his anxious face cupped between her white palms. ”This they say - that should the Shining One come to succour Yolara and Lugur, should it conquer its fear - and - do this - then is there but one way left to destroy it - and to save your world."

                She swayed; he gripped her tightly.

                "But one way - you and I must go - together - into its embrace! Yea, we must pass within it - loving each other, loving the world, realizing to the full all that we sacrifice and sacrificing all, our love, our lives, perhaps even that you call soul, O loved one; must give ourselves all to the Shining One - gladly, freely, our love for each other flaming high within us - that this curse shall pass away! For if we do this, pledge the Three, then shall that power of love we carry into it weaken for a time all that evil which the Shining One has become - and in that time the Three can strike and slay!"

                The blood rushed from my heart; scientist that I am, essentially, my reason rejected any such solution as this of the activities of the Dweller. Was it not, the thought flashed, a propitiation by the Three out of their own weakness - and as it flashed I looked up to see their eyes, full of sorrow, on mine - and knew they read the thought. Then into the whirling vortex of my mind came steadying reflections - of history changed by the power of hate, of passion, of ambition, and most of all, by love. Was there not actual dynamic energy in these things - was there not a Son of Man who hung upon a cross on Calvary?

                "Dear love o' mine," said the O'Keefe quietly, ”is it in your heart to say yes to this?"

                "Larry," she spoke low, ”what is in your heart is in mine; but I did so want to go with you, to live with you - to - to bear you children, Larry - and to see the sun."

                My eyes were wet; dimly through them I saw his gaze on me.

                "If the world is at stake," he whispered, ”why of course there's only one thing to do. God knows I never was afraid when I was fighting up there - and many a better man than me has gone West with shell and bullet for the same idea; but these things aren't shell and bullet - but I hadn't Lakla then - and it's the damned doubt I have behind it all."

                He turned to the Three - and did I in their poise sense a rigidity, an anxiety that sat upon them as alienly as would divinity upon men?

                "Tell me this, Silent Ones," he cried. ”If we do this, Lakla and I, is it sure you are that you can slay the - Thing, and save my world? Is it sure you are?"

                For the first and the last time, I heard the voice of the Silent Ones. It was the man-being at the right who spoke.

                "We are sure," the tones rolled out like deepest organ notes, shaking, vibrating, assailing the ears as strangely as their appearance struck the eyes. Another moment the O'Keefe stared at them. Once more he squared his shoulders; lifted Lakla's chin and smiled into her eyes.

                "We stick!" he said again, nodding to the Three.

                Over the visages of the Trinity fell benignity that was - awesome; the tiny flames in the jet orbs vanished, leaving them wells in which brimmed serenity, hope - an extraordinary joyfulness. The woman sat upright, tender gaze fixed upon the man and girl. Her great shoulders raised as though she had lifted her arms and had drawn to her those others. The three faces pressed together for a fleeting moment; raised again. The woman bent forward - and as she did so, Lakla and Larry, as though drawn by some outer force, were swept upon the dais.

                Out from the sparkling mist stretched two hands, enormously long, six-fingered, thumbless, a faint tracery of golden scales upon their white backs, utterly unhuman and still in some strange way beautiful, radiating power and - all womanly!

                They stretched forth; they touched the bent heads of Lakla and the O'Keefe; caressed them, drew them together, softly stroked them - lovingly, with more than a touch of benediction. And withdrew!

                The sparkling mists rolled up once more, hiding the Silent Ones. As silently as once before we had gone we passed out of the place of light, beyond the crimson stone, back to the handmaiden's chamber.

                Only once on our way did Larry speak.

                "Cheer up, darlin'," he said to her, ”it's a long way yet before the finish. An' are you thinking that Lugur and Yolara are going to pull this thing off? Are you?"

                The handmaiden only looked at him, eyes love and sorrow filled.

                "They are!" said Larry. ”They are! Like HELL they are!"